TuTechno - Technical Tutorials

Cloud Computing with Windows Azure Web OS

Apollo — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 22:17:23 +0000

This will be my second post on the Windows Azure and Services Platform or what is really Microsoft’s Web OS in the Cloud (ok cloud really means thousands of virtualized servers running Windows Server 2008). Now let me just say from the start that I am presenting my thoughts and insight based on the CTP. Ok lets dig-in to the details.

What is Windows Azure all about?

After researching and working with Windows Azure I would define Windows Azure as “An operating system for the Web”. So the next question is what is a Web OS? Time for an anology. When you think about operating systems Windows XP, Mac OS, Linux, etc… come to mind. Now all of these operating systems provide a platform for developers to create software. For example, when someone watches a video, there is an application that lets a user view and hear something. Or lets say you want to balance your checkbook. You typically open software like Excel and just do your thing. In these examples, the operating system provides the platform and services so that applications like excel or media player can do what they need to do and the end user doesn’t care. Well Windows Azure is very similar. Windows Azure is a Web OS that provides both a platform with services that will allow developers to develop pluggable applications or services (Live, .NET, Sql, SharePoint and Dynamics are all services that can be leveraged to build out custom applications) and deploy them to Windows Azure. The other huge benefit is that these applications that are deployed to Windows Azure can scale from 1 to thousands of users very quickly since the Web OS is running on Microsofts servers (or in the cloud). The image below paints the Windows Azure picture.

How does it work generally speaking?

I copied and created a couple images to simplify things a bit (basic description will follow each image).

In the above image you can see that the Azure Platform is managed by what they call the Fabric. This controller is responsible for communicating with the agents that are running on all the virtualized servers. The Fabric checks for a heartbeat and if things are not working correctly notifications will be logged and sent. What if a server goes down? No problem there are thousands of virtual servers that can can pick-up the load (i think each server is running three VW’s or so that is what I heard). I will address storage in another post, but there are two types of storage; Simple Data Storage and SQL Server Data Services. Couple side notes 1. There are some folks that think life in the cloud will not affect the way development projects are delivered WRONG. Windows Azure while allowing developers to code in .NET is a different world (more to come on this topic). 2. If you are a development shop and plan to dive, sorry I mean fly into the clouds, be sure to have your developers ramp up on Linq, REST, ADO.NET Data Services, and WCF.

Update: Microsoft will be delivering Sql Relation Data Services and moving away from ACE (Authorities, Containers, and Entities). This will make it even easier to simply move existing applications to the Cloud. You will be able to point your connection string to your cloud instance or to your local database NICE!!!.

The above image illustrates all of the moving parts. As you can see Windows Azure provides a Web OS platform along with Azure Services. What this all really means is that I can develop lets say an Applicant tracking system deploy it to Windows Azure (Web OS) and the application can use services from Windows Live, Sql and SharePoint ( In a future post I will take this applicant tracking system example to the next level).

One final thought

I will end this post with a final thought. Today’s operating systems are proprietary (for the most part) by proprietary I mean that I cant just install the same office suite software and it works on Windows XP, linux or Mac. With Web OS that limitation is relatively gone. I could theoretically develop an application on Windows Azure that pulls data from some service on Google’s Web OS. The possibilities are endless.

In my next post I will walk through what I did to create and deploy a web application to Windows Azure. Feel free to ask any questions and I will do my best to get an answer.

Delete all data from tables in a Sql Server database

Apollo — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 13:46:06 +0000

I was developing some application on my development machine and needed to quickly delete all the data in the tables. The following script is perfect for deleting all data. Would I run this on 1,000,000 records in production? Get real

– disable referential integrity
EXEC sp_MSForEachTable ‘ALTER TABLE ? NOCHECK CONSTRAINT ALL’
GO

EXEC sp_MSForEachTable ‘TRUNCATE TABLE ?’
GO

– enable referential integrity again
EXEC sp_MSForEachTable ‘ALTER TABLE ? CHECK CONSTRAINT ALL’
GO

Find all Stored Procedures in a Sql Server Database

Apollo — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 20:18:36 +0000

I needed to get a list of all stored procedures in my Sql Server 2005 database so I ran the following sql and bam! Got what I needed.

SELECT routine_name from information_schema.routines
WHERE routine_type = ‘procedure’

Be sure to select the correct database

When Coalesce is Not Your Friend

Apollo — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 18:28:24 +0000

I recently had a situation where the Coalesce function is Sql Server 2005 was not my friend. See below

The Setup

I had two tables “Student” and “Race” the student table had a FK (RaceID) that could be NULL if the race of the student was not known.

Tables

Student

StudentID    Name    RaceID
———    ——   ———–
1               Lewis         1
2               Ralph        1
3               Joan         null

Race

RaceID    RaceBackground
———-    —————–
1                  Hispanic
2                  White
3                  African American

In comes mr. Coalesce

declare @raceid as int
set @raceid = 1 – - or a null value could be passed

select s.StudentID, s.Name, e.RaceID, e.RaceBackground
From Student s
Left Join Race e on s.RaceID = e.RaceID –I have also tried right join with no success
Where s.EthnicityID = coalesce(@raceid, s.RaceID) — the issue seems to be that in some cases s.RaceID is also null so no data is returned

The above did not work. Instead I had to do the following and all is well in the world:

select s.StudentID, s.Name, e.RaceID, e.RaceBackground
From Student s
Left Join Race e on s.RaceID = e.RaceID where (s.EthnicityID = @ethnicity or @ethnicity is null)

Microsoft Azure Cloud Service Introduction

Apollo — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 15:40:36 +0000

The following bullet points provide an introduction to the Azure Service from Microsoft. The next post will include some details on how to develop a cloud service using Azure.

Cloud is a set of connected servers (1000′s all over the world)
Azure is an OS for the cloud
Azure has four primary features:
- Service Management
- Compute
- Storage
- Developer experience
Utility computing is a metered services
Azure provides a complete platform
- Web Based UI for managing service
- Compute and storage using cloud friendly API’s
- Familiar developer tools
Azure applications run in the cloud on a VM windows 2008 instance
Azure is all about web or worker role
Each role is assigned a VM with its own process
Web role accepts http requests
- ASP.NET
- WCF
No in memory session state
You will store state in cookie or azure storage
Worker roles
- Like a windows service
- Polling and long running workflows unattended
- The web app can drop a message and the worker role can execute
Azure storage
- Blobs – Large items of user data
- Tables – simple tables and caches
- Queues – service communication
- Azure data storage is not SQL server data storage.
Services are accessible via RESTful based services
Service Management
- Automated service management
  - You define the rules and provide code
  - The platform follows the rules: deploys, monitors and manages your services
- Automated service responsibilities
  - Developer is responsible for
    - Developing and modeling the service
    - Deploy service to the cloud
    - Configure service settings and constraints
  - Azure is responsible for
    - Running the service
    - Maintain health of the service
Development Environment
- Each desktop has a cloud environment via the sdk that will install mini applications that will simulate the cloud.
- Several languages supported (.NET Languages, PHP, native code, etc…)
- Visual Studio integration (Download the Azure SDK)
- You will need to thinks to get started in Azure development
  - Azure SDK
  - Tools for Visual Studio (need vista or IIS 7 and Sql Server express)
  - Visual Studio 2008 and express
- Applications can interact with local service via RESTful service endpoints
Other Services that can be leveraged from Azure Service or local developed applications are
- .NET Services
  - Service Bus
  - Workflow
  - Access Control (allows for integration with on premises AD)
  - …
- SQL Services
  - Database
  - Analytics
  - Reporting
  - …
- Live Services
  - Identity
  - Contacts
  - Devices
  - …

How to Import List Templates with STP Files

Apollo — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 13:13:55 +0000

1. Download the list template EXE file to your computer.
2. Run the EXE file to unpack the template file to a location on your computer.
3. Select the template file, .stp, from the extracted distribution for the application template you wish to install.
4. Log into your SharePoint site as the site Administrator.
5. From the Site Actions drop-down menu in the top right, select Site Settings.
6. Under the Galleries section, select List templates.
7. Select Upload to load an application template into this SharePoint site.
8. Browse to the .stp file from the distribution and select Open. If you have several application templates to load into your site, you can use the Upload Multiple Files… option to load them all at once.
9. Click Ok to complete the upload of the application template to your SharePoint site.

Applying the new List Template:

1. Log into your SharePoint site as the site Administrator.
2. From the Site Actions drop-down menu in the top right, select Site Settings.
3. Under the Site Administration section, select Sites and Workspaces.
4. Select Create to create a new list using a list template.
5. Find the list template that was uploaded.
6. Select the template to use for this site and click Create.
7. A list has now been created using the list template.

IIS Admin Service or a service dependent on IIS Admin is not active. It most likely failed to start, which may mean that it’s disabled. Restart attempt failed.

Apollo — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 02:07:16 +0000

I recently ran into this error while trying to restart IIS. The first thought was that MOSS SharePoint somehow caused the problem (it so easy to blame Microsoft). In any case after looking in the error logs we noticed that we were catching an SMTP error (WHAT!!!!!). So, we uninstalled the SMTP service on the Server (Windows 2003 SP2) and after a reboot, IIS reset was able to restart. So if you ever see the error “

IIS Admin Service or a service dependent on IIS Admin is not active. It most likely failed to start, which may mean that it’s disabled. Restart attempt failed”,

look into the error log an see if you have a bad SMTP install.

Backup SharePoint 2007 Steps and Advice

Apollo — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 18:36:52 +0000

I was recently asked about backing up SharePoint 2007. As I was listening I remembered the time that I went into one of the Site Collections and deleted the whole thing. The sys admin guys shaked their heads and said “its all in the database”. One of the sys admin guys went off and in a few minutes the site collection was back online. The moral of the story is that 99.9 % of what you see on Sharepoint is stored in the database. So what I have done is added the steps to backup sharepoint using sql server management studio. From an advice perspective I would say run the back stuff located within Central admin and then go to Sql Server and backup the appropriate databases (See below)

Back up an Office SharePoint Server 2007 farm

Start SQL Server Management Studio and connect to the database server.
In Object Explorer, expand Databases.
Right-click the configuration database (usually named SharePoint_Config), point to Tasks, and then click Back Up.
In the Back Up Database dialog box, select the type of backup that you want to perform from the Backup type list (Full).
Under Backup component, select the Database option.
In the Name text box, type a name or use the default.
In the Description text box, type a description of the backup.
Under Backup set will expire, specify how long the backup should be kept, or use the default. When the backup set expires, the backup set can be overwritten by any subsequent backups with the same name. The backup set is set to never expire (0 days) by default.
In the Destination section, specify a location to store the backup set, or use the default.
Click OK to back up the database.
Repeat steps 3 through 10 for the following databases:
- Content databases
- Databases for Shared Services Providers (SSPs)
- Search databases for the SSPs
- Search databases
When done place the .bak file(s) in a safe place. Typically you could restore these backups and point SharePoint 2007 at the restored database and viola.

SharePoint 2007 Web Services

Apollo — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 20:32:44 +0000

So, I was looking for some information about web services and MOSS and found a cool little summary that I thought I would make available on tutechno. I saw the list on Tony Testa’s World Blog at http://tonytestasworld.us/post/SharePoint-2007-Web-Services.aspx

Name	URL	Description
Administration	http:///_vti_adm/Admin.asmx	Ok….this one is the only different one out of the web services. The Admin.asmx web service performs naturally…Admin functions thus it is behind your Central Admin site and require appropriate admin permissions.Provides methods for managing a deployment of Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services, such as for creating or deleting site collections.
Alerts	http:///_vti_bin/Alerts.asmx	Provides methods for working with alerts for list items in a SharePoint site.
Authentication	http:///_vti_bin/Authentication.asmx	Specifies a client proxy that provides user authentication for SharePoint sites that use forms-based authentication.
Copy	http:///_vti_bin/Copy.asmx	Provides methods for copying files between SharePoint sites or within a SharePoint site.
Document Workspace	http:///_vti_bin/Dws.asmx	Exposes methods for managing Document Workspace sites and the data they contain.
Forms	http:///_vti_bin/Forms.asmx	Provides methods for returning forms that are used in the user interface when working with the contents of a list.
Imaging	http:///_vti_bin/Imaging.asmx	Provides methods that enable you to create and manage picture libraries.
List Data Retrieval	http:///_vti_bin/DspSts.asmx	Defines the filter used in a query against a data source provider.
Lists	http:///_vti_bin/Lists.asmx	Provides methods for working with lists and list data
Meetings	http:///_vti_bin/Meetings.asmx	Enables you to create and manage Meeting Workspace sites.
People	http:///_vti_bin/People.asmx	Provides methods for working with Principal objects.
Permissions	http:///_vti_bin/Permissions.asmx	Provides methods for working with the permissions for a site or list.
SharePoint Directory Management	(in stssoap.dll)	Provides classes that enable requests for various management operations for e-mail distribution groups.
Site Data	http:///_vti_bin/SiteData.asmx	Provides methods that return metadata or list data from sites or lists in Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services.
Sites	http:///_vti_bin/Sites.asmx	Provides a method for returning information about the collection of site templates on the virtual server.
Search	http:///_vti_bin/spsearch.asmx	The QueryService class is the entry point for calling the Search in Windows SharePoint Services Query web service.
Users and Groups	http:///_vti_bin/usergroup.asmx	Provides methods for working with users, role definitions, and groups.
Versions	http:///_vti_bin/Versions.asmx	Provides methods for working with file versions.
Views	http:///_vti_bin/Views.asmx	Provides methods for working with views of lists.
Web Part Pages	http:///_vti_bin/WebPartPages.asmx	Provides methods for working with Web Parts.
Webs	http:///_vti_bin/Webs.asmx	Provides methods for working with sites and sub sites.

SharePoint 2007 and Sql Server Reporting Services Integration

Apollo — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 15:15:39 +0000

A colleague recently asked how to setup SharePoint Report Center so that it could display reports and graphs via Sql Server Reporting Services (SSRS). I have adapted the following from a presentation I saw from Ted Malone of ConfigureSoft. I know, “no fancy screen shots”, but I wanted to keep it simple. As a side note the following list is for integrating these technologies on the same server. When doing this type of integration on multiple servers the primary issue that usually arises is security between the different servers.

1. You need Service Pack 2 for SQL to integrate with MOSS (Enterprise version).
2. Download Sql Server 2005 addin for SharePoint.
3. Configure SSRS through SSRS Configuration Tool.
4. Create a new Database.
5. Change Server Mode to by click change….
6. Create a new Database.
7. Once complete you will need to go to SharePoint Central Admin.
8. Go to IIS and change default port to 8080 instead of 80.
9. Navigate to reportserver url.
10. Go to SharePoint Central Admin to the App management tab.
11. You will see a reporting services section on the left.
12. Click on Manage Integration Settings.
12. Confirm that the RS server url is correct with port 8080.
13. Internal app use Windows auth.
14. Next click on Grant Database access.
15. You need to ensure the correct server name is viewable and click ok, this will grant sharepoint service accounts access to the reporting server.
16. Create a report publishing portal.
17. Create a report library or a report center site.
18. Create data connection library.
19. After creating a report library be sure to select None in the Document Template.
20. When you start to develop SSRS reports in the Business Intelligence Studio you will need to modify the report deploy properties to connect to the SharePoint server (http://lalal/DatasourceLibraryname) and the correct SharePoint Report Library (The Target Server URL will be the SharePoint servername).
21. Once you deploy datasource you will need to approve.